THOR #607
What did the
iFanboy
community think?
Pulls
PENCILS: Billy Tan
COVER BY: Mico Suayan
Size: pages
Price: 2.99
I was very disappointed by this issue of Thor. If I wanted to read it as a stand alone “What If” kind of story (e.g. out of continuity) , then it might have worked okay. But I’m also reading the Siege and Siege: Embedded mini-series so I’m not coming into this story without a notion as to how this overall story is unfolding. The events in this issue of Thor are directly in opposition to Embedded, as well as the way that events unfolded in Siege #1, and as a result I was simply unable to get lost in the story and go along with it. The thinking part of my mind was constantly trying to reconcile this with everything else I’ve read, and the feeling part of my mind wasn’t being swept away by the rather mundane art work, leaving me with very little enjoyment when all was said and done. I fault Gillen with completely failing to understand the larger storyline within which he is writing, but more importantly I feel that the editor failed to ensure that the final product fit the company’s current event continuity. This reflects poorly on Marvel’s professionalism and care for its customers. Marvel wants us, its customer-base, to buy a load of interconnected stories but has no concern for actually delivering an interconnected storyline. All around, a very poor showing.
Art: 3 - Good
Find us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Some rights reserved.
This is connected to me. It explains why a certain someone did not foresee the siege. Although I do not know where the bad guy at the end came from.
Another one of the Seige books had already explained why Heimdall hadn’t seen the threat, and it had nothing to do with Loki locking him in a mystical dungeon. Embedded shows Volstag travelling back to Broxton with reporter Ben Urich during the Siege, as opposed to Volstag porting back to Broxton immediately after the Chicago incident to turn himself in to local police. And the character Ragnorak (appearing at the end) is a clone of Thor from Civil War (he killed Giant Man/Goliath/Black Goliath) who was last seen in the possession of members of the Initiative (in the series Avengers: The Initiative at the start of the Dark Reign). Editorial could have had Gillen write the same basic storyline that involved Volsatg but using Hogan and Fandril in place of Volstag, and had him rework the feast hall scene to avoid the continuity issues with the state of Asgard as portrayed in Siege #1. But instead they just let him run with whatever he pleased, regardless of consistency. Editorial at Marvel has been very poor during their last several major crossovers, going back to Civil War. As a stand alone story this comic worked fine, and as part of the current storyline in the Thor series it was fine as well. But as a Siege tie-in it was very poorly executed and essentially out of continuity. It did nothing to make me feel like I was reading part of a larger story, which I assume is counter to the point of a tie-in. Marvel does a poor job executing major line-wide events and I hope that they’re serious about backing away from them, at least until they figure out how to do them well.
I read all those issues and did not get an immediate this-makes-no-sense, continuity-wise reaction. I just assumed that the Volstagg stuff picks up somewhere after Embedded #2. It is not hard to create a timeline running from the Soldier Field incident to the start of Seige to the pounding of Thor that gets Volstagg back to Broxton along with Urich after the attack starts but before his release. I am sure a closer read of all these issues will find some continuity gaffs, but I hardly felt that Marvel allowed such dramatic errors that they were both unprofessional and disrespectful. Of course Embedded #3, where Volstagg must turn himself in to make this make sense, could still prove you right…